


keep it sweet in your memory

by mypetersburg



Category: New Girl
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Birthday, Birthday Cake, F/M, Fluff, Kissing, but not overtly fluffy, not a TON but enough, set in s2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:54:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27258280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mypetersburg/pseuds/mypetersburg
Summary: On the morning of her thirty-second birthday, there’s a rapping on her door and the suspicious smell of cake.OR- It's Jess' thirty-second birthday, and Nick is going to make it a good one. Set during S2, after "Table 34".
Relationships: Jessica Day/Nick Miller
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	keep it sweet in your memory

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Wanted to write a quick one for you all. I hope you enjoy the upcoming holiday season. Please, stay safe out there- wear a mask, social distance, all that good stuff.  
> Enjoy it!
> 
> (Title from "Sunflower Vol. 6" by Harry Styles) (because Golden MV was incredible)

On the morning of her thirty-second birthday, there’s a rapping on her door and the suspicious smell of cake. Jess lets her mouth curl up into a smile, lying flat on her back with her hair a mess around her.

“Jess!” Nick calls from the other side of the door. He’s got that quality to his voice like he’s trying to hide genuine excitement, and it makes her smile grow wider.

“Yes, Nicholas?” She calls, sugary-sweet, playing the whole thing up.

“I’ve, uh,” he clears his throat quickly, “I’ve got something for you.”

“Why? Is it some sort of special day?”

“ _Jessica_.”

“Fine, come in.” She calls, adjusting her pajamas. “You’d better have a-”

She’s about to finish it, about to demand a present, but then she catches a glimpse at Nick. Nick, who’s holding a birthday cake. A three-layer, lopsided cake with a lit candle sticking out. A pink-frosted monstrosity.

He’s smiling, wider than she’s seen in ages, and that cake is _tilting_.

“Happy birthday.” Nick says, voice a little softer now, and Jess doesn’t even have it in her to laugh at her pink disaster.

“Nick.” She says softly, feeling choked up. “Nick, I-”

“Don’t make it a _thing_.”

“You remembered.”

“Obviously.” He says, only a touch defensively. “You’ve been talking about it for weeks. It’s all over _everything_.”

“You baked me a cake, Nick.”

“I…” He hasn’t got one to explain that away, just a sheepish smile. “Funfetti vanilla.”

“I _love_ Funfetti.”

“I know.” He’s smiling now, full out, teeth bared and bright in the sun haze of her bedroom.

She keeps looking at it, at the way the candle burns out, and Nick bends toward her. The frosting is dangerously close to brushing her hair and bedsheets, and she twists and squirms out of the way. But then he bends, eyes warm and voice low.

“Make a wish, Jess.” He says, and she looks up at him, down at the candle, up at him. Then, as the stout candle flickers smaller, she closes her eyes and blows out a big breath, making her wish.

The candle goes out with a _whoosh_ , and Jess opens her eyes to find Nick closer than she thought. There’s a smudge of pink under his eye, like a stripe.

“You’ve got a little…” Jess says, pointing, and Nick reaches up a hand to wipe at it. The cake, precariously balanced on the plate, topples forward dangerously quickly.

Nick yanks the cake back, saving it from falling all over her at just the last second. He starts to apologize, face pinched, but Jess just throws her head back and cackles with a hysterical, bubbly laugh.

-

They eat cake on her bed, from two plates with two forks that he brought with him. Nick talks with his mouth full and it’s disgusting, and Jess physically feels her teeth rot away at the sweetness of the frosting. It's all really perfect. 

“Too much sugar.” He says around a mouthful of cake. “Sorry.”

Jess shrugs, appreciates his mind-reading abilities as she licks frosting off her fork. It is a little too sweet, but it's still good. It's still Nick's handiwork, because it isn't nearly creamy enough to be made from a box. 

“Where is everyone?” She asks, because she _did_ plan for this pretty heavily. She was writing birthday reminders down on _everything_ , desperate for the guys to maybe throw her a nice party this year.

“Schmidt had to go into the office.” Nick says, frowning. “He’s got dinner planned, though.”

And then his eyes go wide and he chokes on his cake, and Jess grins knowingly.

“Was that supposed to be-”

“A surprise, yeah.” Nick says, face pinched in a frown, and she just laughs. She knows him too well by now to be surprised, but she’s happy that Schmidt’s at least got something up his sleeve.

“And Winston?”

“Asleep.” Nick says, poking at the cake with his fork. “But he didn’t forget. Trust me.”

At that, Jess glances around at her nightstand, looking for her phone. She finally spots it, shifts the cake plate in her lap to check the time.

“It’s barely nine.” She says, frowning. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“I…” He reaches up and rubs at the back of his neck. “I may have woken up early to bake the cake.”

And Jess certainly believes that her cake was an early morning job. She’s crunched down on way too many egg shell pieces for it not to be, but she’s still pleased. Pleased with Nick, pleased with the sickly-sweet disaster, pleased with everything.

“You know,” she says conversationally, “if that gets out, people will know you care.”

He shrugs, looking down at her striped sheets.

“I bet they already do.” He says, and then silence falls over them. It’s nice, though. They’re not tense or uncomfortable, just sort of looking at each other.

She thinks of how he kissed her, his hands big and warm on her arms. How his mouth felt, how it tasted. She bets he’d be sweeter now, all sugary and pink from the frosting.

“Nick…” She starts, unsure of where he’s going, but he sort of handles it for her. It’s with a surge forward, his big hands cupping her face, his plate of cake abandoned on the other side of her bed.

They’re nose to nose now, and she can smell the cake on his breath.

“Jess.” He whispers, and she shuts her eyes and nods, wanting to cry with how _bad_ she wants him to kiss her. Because Sam is done, gone, and Nick is right _here_ , frosting under his eye and flour in his hair.

And he does. He kisses her and it’s _good_ , it’s what she wanted, soft and sweet and _Nick_.

She deepens it, tilting her head in and biting down against his bottom lip, unsure of how far she’s willing to let it go. Farther than she should, she knows.

He starts to push her back against the pillows, all smooth and suave and not him. So of course something has to go wrong. Of course her plate of cake, forgotten on her lap, has to flip up and fly across her stomach, her face, her chest.

She screams before she means to, muffled into his mouth, and he breaks away with a shout. He hovers over her, face panicked, eyes wide.

“Jessica?” He asks, frantic. “Jess?”

“ _Cake_.” She manages, then bursts into a round of hysterical laughter.

This time, Nick joins her, slumping atop her and the mess of cake, laughing into her hair. He curves an arm over her shoulders, holding her firmly in place despite her protests and screams.

“Happy birthday, Jess.” He mumbles against the side of her neck after a while, voice tired and low.

“It’s the happiest.”

“Corny.”

She snorts another laugh at that, tastes cake and frosting and _Nick_ on her breath. She thinks of her birthday wish, of blowing at the candles and just wishing for a way to sort out _everything_.

She feels Nick atop her, feels cake smushing against her pajama top, and breathes in the smell of his shampoo.

“Thanks, Nick.” She whispers against the hollow of his throat. “For everything.”

His hand comes up, brushes down her hair and no doubt streaks it with frosting. She doesn’t protest, just leans against his palm.

“No need.” He says, sure as ever, and she smiles, tired and full and _happy_.

Yeah. She thinks the birthday wish might’ve come true, just this once.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comment if you'd like- but thank you for reading! :)


End file.
